Biotech Beat: Career Pivot to Biotech Brings Opportunity

The Biotech Beat Podcast, from the Alumni and Industry Engagement ATE project (DUE 2202011), delivers fresh episodes each month. Listen to their April 21, 2026 episode where you will hear about Lena, a Renasant Bio scientist, who started in biotech in 2014, and has gained experience in four biotech companies over the years.

Lean had always had an interest in science, and around 2014 she discovered the Biotech program at City College of San Francisco. She had worked in an organic chemistry lab in college, and really enjoyed it so the program looked like a good fit. Lena is from Oakland, so CCSF and Renasant Bio are nearby. Renansant Bio is in an incubator space, so there are a lot of small, collaborative companies and Lena has plenty of people to talk to and learn from. Outside of work, Lena spends time with her dog as well as painting and drawing. 

Lena started as a Scientist at Renasant 6 months ago and primarily runs a high-throughput imaging screen, day to day is cell culture and cell care because her work is all in vitro. She preps the assay, runs it and troubleshoots any issues, and then analyzes the results in order to decide on the next experiment. Lena started her biotech career at Coda Bio for about 5 years, but when that company closed, she went to Sana Bio, but that company had to down-size so she was laid off. Then insitro for about 2.5 years, where she continued to hone her skills in assay development.  Renasant is giving her a chance to learn image assaying, so she is very excited for the opportunity. 

All the company moves she had to do were hard as she had to leave coworkers she liked, and projects she was invested in, however she understands that there is an "ebb and flow" in science, so the endings were not failures, but just "not right nows" and someone else may succeed later down the line. She was thankful she was able to find new positions quickly, and made the point that biotech can move quickly and even within a company a project you are working on can suddenly be shut down and you can then get reassigned to some other project that is a better fit for the company's priorities. Being flexible is important, and keep learning new skills whereever you go.

At CCSF, Lena was in the Bridge to Biosciences program which is an introductory course for people who don't have a science background, since Lena's degree is in Film and Digital Media. After the Bridge, she went into the Associate's program and gained the skills needed to start her biotech career. Lena felt that that the internship she got through the program was key--getting into the lab and gaining the real world experience was critical to her success, and makes all the difference no matter what your academic history. 

The career switch made for a steeper learning curve, but it also gave Lena a set of skills that others may not have. Working on an image assay seems like a perfect fit for a former Film and Digital Media student! Lena enjoyed her previous career, but when jobs became hard to find, the pivot to biotech helped her find a new career with multiple opportunities. 

Lena said the personal attachment to her projects in biotech was surprising to her, as she really feels passionate about her ability to contribute to science, and perhaps saving lives. However, a former supervisor told her "It's better to have good data, than all the data"--so Lena says that it is important to know you can't do it all, and things will fail, but just keep trying.  It may be the science, not anything to do with you. 

Lena's advice to people who want to work in biotech? Go for it! You can get a lot of personal satisfaction to know you are helping someone, somewhere. And although you may not have a background in science so it seems out of reach, just try. Just like drawing, don't discredit yourself and say you can't--just TRY!

Tune in on Spotify, iHeart Radio, or Apple Podcasts for more of Lena's journey and the advice she shares if you are wondering about a biotech career path.

If you're a community college graduate, the Alumni and Industry Engagement ATE project would love to have your journey on Biotech Beat. Please get in touch with Cassandra at cassandra.mitchell-nothaus@austincc.edu.